• Old School Wrestling Legend Would Have Celebrated His Birthday
Today would have been the 85th birthday of Old School Wrestling Legend Ox Baker (Real name: Douglas Baker Sr.).
Baker most famously competed in several different territories during his long, illustrious career, including the WWWF/WWF, NWA (JCP), AWA, NJPW, WCCW, GCW, CWF, CWA, AJPW, … & many more.
Those of you who didn’t see him in the ring during his professional wrestling career, will certainly remember him for his role in John Carpenter’s movie “Escape from New York”, where he was fighting Kurt Russell.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY & † REST IN PEACE
April 19, 1934 – October 20, 2014
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• Vince McMahon Didn’t Use Bully Ray Character Due To Be-A-Star Program
During a recent appearance on Talk Is Jericho podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley talked about why Vince McMahon didn’t use the Bully Ray character in WWE.
Below is what Bubba said:
“I told Vince McMahon that I cannot do this anymore. I can’t do this Dudley thing the way that you want it done. I believe that it has run its course.
I told him about Bully Ray, and me and Vince McMahon had three really good and serious conversations about Bully Ray and he was totally into it. He said that nobody loves the bully character more than me. He said that is who I am, but he said that I cannot call you Bully Ray. I can’t use the name ‘Bully’ and have the Be-A-Star program.
He said that it is a great idea, but by the time we get there I will get slaughtered by the press. He felt that it would be too long. You have a Be-A-Star program but you have a guy called Bully. By the time you get to the payoff, I would have endured too much negative press by then. My backup was the Intimidator Bubba Ray. I wasn’t even going to go with the Bully Ray name and that was it, and I saw the look in his eyes where he liked that and we can do that.
One of the things that was important to me separating from D-Von and becoming the Bully Ray character was that I had to turn on D-Von. D-Von was the piece of the puzzle because if I turned on D-Von I would immediately have heat. If I turned on a generic wrestler it wouldn’t have any steam or history, but Vince wasn’t feeling it. I presented it to him a few more times and we actually shook hands. On my last SmackDown before our contracts ended, he said that we were going to run with this and will do it. We shook hands and hugged; it was a done deal.
Our last night that was on Raw was supposed to be the night I turned on D-Von. A few days before Raw, Vince McMahon calls me himself and said, ‘Pal, I’m sorry, we’re not going to run with it. We’re not quite sure we see the money in the feud.’
But I just don’t think either he or maybe some other people on creative were feeling the Bubba Ray vs D-Von feud. I think he was sold on the bully idea but wasn’t sold on the feud to get there.
The thing that blew me the most away after speaking with Vince McMahon the first time around about not being able to do this Dudley Boys thing anymore, I said that I would like to run an idea with you and he said that he knew all about Bully Ray.
I was shocked. I no-sold it. I didn’t flinch and I didn’t blink but that kind of excited me because I felt that at least it was on the radar. We had discussions about it. I brought up guys that I can work with and the stories that we can tell and what we can do.”
